Las Filipinas: The Persistence of Spain in Jessica Hagedorn's <em>Dogeaters</em>

This essay argues for the significance of the legacy of Spain in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters. Critical analyses have explored many aspects of the novel's portrayal of relations between the Philippines and the United States, a more recent colonizer whose influence on politics and culture is prominent in Dogeaters. The effects of Spanish colonization are more subtle in the novel, but pervade its representation of characters, language, and society. While highlighting the fragmentation of individual and national identities, Dogeaters depicts a Philippines in which many social and political problems have roots in the Spanish colonial era. Building on the work of Lisa Lowe, Gladys Nubla, and Vicente Rafael, among others, the essay traces continuities between the pre-1898 period and the 1950s–1980s Philippines as portrayed in Dogeaters. The privileged position of the narrator Rio is directly descended from that of the ilustrados, late nineteenth-century colonial elites who became nationalist icons. In the novel, the Spanish language serves both as a marker of status for families such as Rio's and as a component of colloquial Tagalog and Taglish. The differing attitudes towards Spanish ancestors in Rio's family underscore the heterogeneity of the Philippines as a whole in Dogeaters. The essay situates Hagedorn's statements about the inspiration she found in Latin American authors when she was writing Dogeaters in a transpacific context, focusing on historical connections between two Spanish colonies: the Philippines and New Spain (Mexico). The novel undermines totalizing conclusions by its narrative structure, which moves between time frames, points of view, and milieus. Throughout, Dogeaters shows the significance of Spanish legacies in the Philippines as both scars of past colonization and elements of present resilience.